There is an old saying, justice delayed is justice denied. Currently, there are massive, years-long delays in the High Court Registrar producing transcripts from trials completed in the High Court of St. Kitts & Nevis.
Transcripts are required in order for appeals to be heard.
As a result of the failure to produce transcripts, some Kittitians and Nevisians are literally sitting in jail for years because their appeals cannot be heard until the transcripts are available.
Today, an anonymous group of advocates and victims, some of whom have their lives in limbo waiting action by the courts, are calling on the Ministry of Justice to clear the backlog of transcripts so that justice can be done.
In order to ensure justice for victims and justice for the innocent, our courts must function properly and in a timely manner. It is ridiculous that there are years-long delays in having appeals heard simply because the court is unable to produce transcripts from trials. And, it’s wrong that people who may later be declared innocent on appeal are sitting in jail sometimes for years waiting on transcripts in order for their appeal to be heard.
In today’s modern age it is ridiculous for years-long delays exist especially when there is both highly accurate voice recognition software and when there are so many people that are jobless and capable of working on transcripts. There are many companies both locally and internationally capable of creating legally binding transcripts, it makes no sense that people should have to wait years to get them produced.
We call upon the Ministry of Justice to secure the services of one of these companies to make quick work of this backlog so that justice can be done.